In vitro model of urothelial cell differentiation using bladder cancer cell lines with various degree of epithelial mesenchymal transition

Cancer cell lines frequently lose epithelial characters (epithelial mesenchymal transition or EMT) but some cell lines retain them without EMT. Here we performed microarray analysis of two different types of human bladder cancer cell lines to characterize urothelial differentiation from stem cells. BOY12E, JMSU1 and T24 displayed EMT and were classified as M-type cell lines. HuB6, HuB15 and 5637 retained urothelial characters such as E-cadherin and uroplakin syntheses and were classified as E-type cell lines. E-type cells were further differentiated by the treatment of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). Expression profile of each cell line was analyzed.